Redline

“Life’s overrated” – JP
“Redline’s overrated” – Me
Me : 1
Redline : 0
Oh, and yeah, this is a spoiler free review, not that it means anything because that would imply Redline has something to spoil.
Redline……. is an enigma.
Hailed as a masterpiece by some, it definitely is a deviant piece of work, I’ll give it that. Now, coming to the actual movie itself, it is a movie about …. about some cars in a race crashing into each other while vying for the top finish for …. eh, it really doesn’t matter. Because Redline is not the kind of movie you watch for the plot, and Redline is ... aware of that. It doesn’t really expect anybody to watch it for the plot, instead relying on its visuals to seal the deal for it, and I’m pretty cool with that. Redline wasn’t meant to be a plot heavy show after all, it was supposed to be a beacon of inspiration for Studio Trigger.
Seriously, if somebody was to describe ‘over the top’ in the most ‘over the top’ fashion, they would have to but come up with a single word : Redline.
And is that a good thing, well, its debatable. You see, Redline is too flashy for its own good, there is only so much things flying into each other I can take without getting a headache. And not only with the visuals, but the actual storyline is a mess as well. And no, the storyline is not ‘just’ complicated, it is balls out stupid, unnecessary, and just there for the sake of it, I kid you not when I say it beats Your Name for the flimsiest storyline ever. But as I’ve already mentioned, Redline is not meant to be taken seriously, but that does not excuse it for its sorry ass excuse of a story.
Mafia subplot? Check
Fanservice? Check
Exxxxplosioons!!!! Check
Jiggle physics? Check
Mechas disguised as cars? Check
Authoritative regime? Check
Neeeed for speeeed? Check
“Friendship” and Betrayal? Check
Trippy Visuals? Check
Cohesive story line? Nah, who cares.

Its almost as if a bunch of animators were locked in a room with a bottle of liquor and some drugs and told to draw cars flying around and Voila! Redline.
Coming to the characters, none of them matter or stick out, except the main characters JP, his gal (she has little personality otherwise) and maybe his (sorta?) friend, Frisbee, who is only memorable because of his FANTASTIC English VA (yeah, I watched it dubbed).
Now coming to the part which Redline IS about, Visuals… Now, I am aware Redline is universally acclaimed for its animation, and the animation is good, but its nothing spectacular. I guess the art style doesn’t really appeal to me much.
Sound: This is one area where Redline knocks the ball out of the fucking park. This has to be one of the most impressive OSTs I have heard. The sounds got me hyped everytime, and although there wasn’t any tension in the anime, the sound created them when needed. All the English VAs were fantastic and top notch. It has an amazing dub and it fit well with the characters themselves.
Overall: It would be incorrect to say Redline is a ‘bad’ movie, because it is not. Most of the strengths of the movie, like the psychedelic visuals, just didn’t appeal to me, I guess. An incoherent storyline doesn’t help, I guess. I would also like to say that if you are interested in this movie then go ahead and give it a watch, because this is unlike anything you have (probably) seen, and this is an experience difficult to explain. Just don’t go in with high expectations, and I’m sure you will be delighted.
Enjoyment Level: Mildly Disappointed, but its okay as a whole I guess.
Oh, and I forgot to mention this is only my 8113rd review and English is my 427th language so please ignore all mistakes, grammatical or factual.
[spoiler]In case you didn’t get it, I’m kidding. Yes I know, my humour sucks, thank you.[/spoiler]

Redline feels a lot like a rollercoaster ride – you wait around, bored out of your mind, for an hour to get a few minutes of exhilaration, and when it comes, it’s a bit disorienting and a lot worse than you were expecting, and then it’s over. Basically, Redline’s got a lot of waiting for not much payoff, and I personally prefer my motion pictures to be good in their entirety, rather than have a single good scene.

One thing that immediately comes to mind as soon as you begin viewing is the unusual visual style, with its very sharp colours, which is a love it ... or hate it ordeal, and I happen to hate it, and this art style is accentuated by the fact that just about every conceivable object in this universe seems like it was intentionally designed to look as bizzare as they could make it, rather than construct a fictional universe in which things seem to function normally, and as a byproduct, some will look different to the way they do in this universe. Take, as the most prominent example, the various species of alien present within, a hundred different species that all look like the genetic product of crustaceans and Decepticons, but, they don’t really matter a whole lot, practically the only characters that matter happen to be human, which is a bit strange to me, if they’re going to go through all this effort designing these bizzare creatures, you’d think they’d give them some sort of screentime, but they’re extras, and nothing but. Call it Chekhov’s Laser Gun, if you will, if you’re going to make something look or work differently to how it does on this planet, then some sort of reasoning should be given, or else it’s not of much purpose at all. Usually, I’m of the belief that so long as it looks neato, then it’s not entirely necessary, but the problem is, it doesn’t, it is disorienting, more than anything else, at any given moment, there are at least ten different things that are completely unrecognisable to me, and I’m just kind of meant to accept that.

If you aren’t paying attention, you might not actually notice, but Redline has a story, that story being that people in cars, some of which look like actual old-timey racecars, others looking like morbidly obese metallic lobsters, have a race called the Redline every 5 years, and our protagonist, generic punk dude with a pompadour and leather jacket with spikes in it, is preparing himself for that race. And, generic really doesn’t quite cut it, he is as fucking hollow a character you can get, if 0 dimensional characters exist, he’s a prime example, he wants to win the race, and he likes some girl, that’s all I can say about him, the girl, well, she also wants to win the race, and she likes him. And, the others might have actual character, barely, 1 dimensional isn’t much better than 0 in the grand scheme of things, they are most certainly not interesting at all, and the problem with this racing anime is that their focus is not on the racing, you get that only at the very beginning and the very end, but rather, this story that nobody gives a shit about, I do not believe it is possible to, the entire thing is malignantly useless. Also something about some space empire trying to colonise one particular planet who didn’t want them to, but I wasn’t very enthralled by that, and you won’t be either, and for the record, they throw in a huge number of characters and plot points, but basically the protagonist and his girlfriend are the only ones who get a conclusion of any sort, 90% of it is filler, holds no purpose, and goes nowhere.
The race itself isn’t awful, it’s a little disorienting because I’m more used to races being grounded, on the ground, being informed that cars are capable of flight, and then flotation about a minute apart isn’t how I’d go about things, but, it’s fine, I guess, same deal with the soundtrack, a few decent tracks in there, but a strong reliance on Engrish theme songs, or that type, which I’ve never been immensely impressed by, but the songs aren’t bad so it’s acceptable enough.

Really, the problem with Redline is it’s focusing on the wrong thing, it’s about a race, yet they hardly ever race, and instead have to go for some profoundly boring story for the overwhelming majority of its duration, they have absolutely nothing to interest the viewer. Redline, more like flatline.

This is a movie that just has too much undeserving praise. Everyone I've heard or read goes on and on about the animation. It's just 70's American style animation with more modern models and a large budget. When trying to ignore the disturbing/distracting animation, there is the english dub that brings the movie down. There were some good names in this, but the translation and their execution were just plain off on this. The music was alright the few times I noticed it and when it wasn't just a slightly alternative to a previous piece. The story is adequate ... at best and the characters somehow over the top and 2-dimensional at the same time. It's not a horrible movie. There was a lot of effort put into this. It's just that with all that effort, I would have wanted more than just a spectacle movie.

The first ten minutes of this anime is stunning. The animation, the music put behind it, the action in the race along with all the unique background characters and designs, not to mention how beautiful the race cars are, that is the best part of this whole movie. The first ten minutes, after that it becomes rather boring with it's boring characters, over used story line and cliches. It's very obvious the only focus was the artwork and action scenes, which while they were amazing, that hardly makes a good movie, animated or not. I couldn't even like the main characters because they were ... boring and annoying with the lack of personalities. Some of the side characters were slightly entertaining but again not enough.
If they remake it with the same style but jazz up the characters with some character traits other than pretty girl and just main guy you're suppose to cheer for, then I'd give it another shot but this movie is on my do not watch again.

Takeshi Koike's Redline puts the gear in overload and comes rushing out full blast.This animation is heavy on the science fiction and despite a thin plot, it offers a lot in a matter of 100 minutes. In fact, it offers too much. There are so many things thrown on the screen that there isn't enough time to explain or digest everything. Sure, this picture is far from boring, but is it an enjoyable watch? Somewhat. Many of the characters lack sufficient development, which make them difficult to follow and the same can be said about some of the plot details.In regards to the racing, it ... is a blast. These scenes are packed with adrenaline and energy that provide a full on adrenaline rush.Visually, the animation looks great. It has that mature look and feel to it, which works well, because this is made for an older audience. The voice work is also a positive, although it is difficult to screw that up with the over the top and wacky characters popping in and out from scene to scene.Redline definitely has its moments, but maybe a little more control and time management of the story is what it needs.

Redline is a nothing burger. You may as well just watch Nascar, because this movie is empty. It's a race, between what amounts to faceless competitors, because, they have nothing to add to this movie, except being drivers for a race. The movie fails at establishing anything of value for our characters, and their story. The characters are bad, lifeless, and boring. Redline is not an 8.28/10. It is a shallow movie that is animated beautifully, that is it.

Animation 10/10
- Its gorgeous, incredible detail, great character design, and a crisp look.
Sound 10/10
- Great sound design, good ... VA work, mixes well with the theme.
Story 1/10
- It's a race. There is nothing more to this movie.
Characters 1/10
- Hollow characters, boring characters.
Enjoyment 4/10
- I liked the animation, the race itself was just okay.

If you want to witness peak animation, with great detail, yes, you should watch this movie. If it matters to you whether a movie has any story or good characters, then don't bother with Redline.